A Very Starry Night
by Cainneigh
Summary: Christmas on the Destiny. REli Rush/Eli


It was Christmas Eve. Scott, Marcus, Colonel Young and Park had cut down a tall tree from a visit to the last planet, which was now standing proudly in the Stargate room. The crew of the Destiny had hung flashlights and lanterns and cell phones on it, and it shone brightly, illuminating the large room in warm, golden light. There were also white paper snowflakes glimmering on the branches.

Despite being trapped in the dark depths of space, the festive tree made a merry mood for most of the people onboard. Becker had managed to scrape together a more cheerful meal, consisting of a Jell-O-like substance, some type of edible meat, cookies, and a pretty looking fruit. Chatter buzzed around everyone's heads as they all sat on the floor of the Stargate room, admiring the beautiful tree and stuffing themselves with the delicacies of non-oatmeal-ish food. When everyone had cleaned their plates, TJ went around with a large bucket full of paper, saying that they were to do a Secret Santa.

Eli reached his hand in and eagerly unfolded his piece of paper. It read, "Rush." Eli sighed. It wasn't that he didn't like Rush, in fact it was quite the opposite. First of all, Rush wasn't the merriest person. Eli glanced over at Rush, who was currently being handed a piece of paper because he had refused to take one. And secondly, Eli really wanted to get him something great, but he had no idea what he could possibly give Rush. Eli chewed on a slice of the exotic fruit and sat pondering what he was going to do.

Rush frowned. He had refused to participate in the stupid holiday game, so TJ had forced it upon him. Rush held the paper crumpled between his hands. He slowly opened it. "Eli." Rush's frown lightened. Well, at least he had been lucky enough to get the only person on the entire ship that he remotely cared about.

Once the excitement had died down, Becker and a few marines had helped to clean up, and TJ and Colonel Young had ushered everyone back to their rooms. Scott and Chloe were entwined beneath a sprig of some leafy plant that was meant to resemble mistletoe. Greer watched the sight and laughed, rolling his eyes. The people of Destiny filtered out of the Stargate room and into the hallways, each going a separate direction.

Eli ran to catch up to Rush. "Hey!" he called out. Rush turned. Eli hadn't really planned on what he was going to say. He had wanted to see if he could pry out and idea of what to get Rush, but now he couldn't think of anything to say. "Um, well I was just-"

Rush glanced up at the ceiling and Eli followed his eyes. They were both standing directly below the branch of 'mistletoe'. Eli stuttered, making noises that weren't quite words. He blushed heavily before running down the hallway. Rush watched him go. Greer happened to walk past Rush, having seen the scene. He snickered loudly before bursting out laughing. He patted Rush on the shoulder and said, "Hey, you two make a nice couple." This only brought on another fit of laughter and Greer quickly left Rush alone. Rush took one last look up at the 'mistletoe' and walked back to his quarters.

Eli lay awake in bed, unable to go to sleep. On every other Christmas Eve night, he had been unable to sleep as well, but it had always been due to excitement. Tonight, it was anxiety. What the hell was he going to do about Rush? He obviously couldn't just go out and buy something, not that he would've known what to get if he had. Eli ran through things in his mind. What did Rush like? Math, science, the Destiny, being in charge, being alone, privacy, caffeine… What did Eli have to offer him? Not much really; Eli had been suddenly whisked away from his home with no time to pack. The only things that Eli possessed were the items he had received at Icarus Base and the things he'd acquired from various planets they had visited. Eli rolled over on his other side. Sighing, he closed his eyes and prayed he'd find an answer.

Rush was sitting at his desk. He had an odd feeling. Part of him, most of him actually, really didn't care about the stupid Secret Santa thing. He could always just find an interesting rock from the planet they were currently connected to via Stargate and put it in a box for Eli. But a smaller part of him knew that Eli really looked up to him, as a mentor and a hero. He didn't give a damn about the rest of Destiny's inhabitants, but for some reason, he did care what Eli thought about him. He felt a small bit of guilt about giving Eli a rock. But what could he give Eli? Rush laid his head down on the desk and tried to sleep without worrying about it.

Christmas morning came just like every other morning they'd had on the Destiny. The only difference was the joyous, carefree attitude of the crew. Becker had been up bright and early to prepare a drink that tasted remarkably like hot chocolate. Eli wondered if Becker had been storing hot cocoa all along, waiting until now to use it. Eli shrugged it off. He had been one of the first people awake, which amazed him due to his lack of sleep the previous night. He sat on the staircase and watched as a few more people began to fill the room. Greer walked in and piped up a conversation with Becker. Marcus soon joined them, chatting excitedly about things that Eli couldn't quite make out. TJ and Colonel Young walked in on the heels of Chloe and Scott. Everyone who came into the room put their presents, most of them wrapped in paper or concealed in a box, under the huge tree. Eli was beginning to wonder where Rush was when he heard footsteps walking down the stairs behind him. He turned around and saw Rush sit down on the step above him.

Eli took a sip of hot chocolate. "'Morning", he greeted. Rush nodded. "Merry Christmas."

After a few minutes, Colonel Young announced, "Alright. Now that we've gotten everybody here, merry Christmas! First of all, thank you to Becker and his men for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas breakfast." This gave way to a thundering round of applause that echoed through the spacious room. Young and TJ silenced them. Young continued. "Secondly, TJ is going to start the Secret Santa now." Cheers from the crowd.

TJ strolled over to the tree. She bent down and retrieved a square package wrapped in paper. "Dale", she read.

All eyes turned to Dale as he claimed his present. Returning to his seat on the floor, he carefully unwrapped the paper. When all the paper was shed, everyone could see a beautiful colored drawing of the cosmos. Dale, being an astrophysicist, gasped at the drawing. One the back of the drawing it read, "The Universe As Seen From Destiny." "It's beautiful."

TJ grinned. "Okay. Palmer."

Andrea Palmer got her gift in a box and opened the lid. There was an array of colorful, shiny stones. Palmer lifted each one up to the light. "Wow. These must be from all of the planets we've visited. What wonderful specimens!" The geologist would later have a field day with examining them.

"Vanessa James."

Vanessa was happily surprised to see a lovely golden necklace produce itself from the mountains of white paper. She gaped and immediately fastened the clasp around her neck. The pretty metal gleamed in the golden light of the Christmas tree. The girls gathered around Vanessa in awe and slight jealousy as TJ called out yet another name.

"TJ. Oh, well that's nice." TJ opened to small box and pulled out a vial of dark liquid. Holding it up to the light, she asked, "And what is this?" She then noticed a piece of paper at the bottom of the box. She pulled it out and started reading. "Ingredients: sodium nitrate, citrus concentrate, otronium oxybenythol…" The list was comprised of a bunch of medical terms that no one understood, but apparently it was good, because TJ's smile only grew wider when she went down the list. She ended up explaining that the liquid was some sort of medicine that she had really needed onboard, but had been unable to find. She said it must have been left at Icarus Base when they evacuated.

Getting on with the process, she said, "Eli."

Eli hopped off the stairs excitedly. He wondered who had gotten his name as he made his way through the crowd sitting on the floor and over towards TJ. TJ handed him a sizable box. Eli took it back to his seat on the stairs and pulled off the lid with anticipation. Rush watched over Eli's shoulder. Inside the box was a Kino and a control for it. Eli cocked his head. Something about this Kino was different. "It looks different." He lifted it out of the box and spun it around, examining it from all angles. "Yeah, it definitely looks cooler." He toyed around with the remote. "Awesome; infrared! And a scanning device!" With every button Eli pressed, a new action was performed by the machine. This Kino was no longer a flying camera; it was a flying everything. Eli noticed there was something carved into the back of the Kino. Scrawled in someone's handwriting, it said, "KELI". "KELI! Like Kino and Eli put together!" Eli immediately took the Kino to the air and tested his new toy by flying it crazily around the room, much to everyone's dismay. The smile on Eli's face couldn't have been bigger and Rush grinned from behind him.

Eli steered KELI so that it was hovering next to TJ. TJ batted it away and went on with her duties. "Matthew Scott."

Scott's present was passed through the crowd until it fell in his hands. It was a folded sheet of paper. Scott unfolded it and read it silently to himself. While reading it, a happy smile spread across his face. When he finished it, he laughed. "Okay, I definitely will", he spoke, presumably to whoever had written the letter. There were cries from the crew members to have him read it aloud, but he continued grinning and shook his head, refolding the note and sticking in his pocket instead. He didn't even let the persistent Chloe read it. That really got everyone interested.

"Okay, well if Scott's going to be a killjoy, we might as well move on. Greer!"

Greer's head jerked up as he heard his name. He eagerly moved to receive his gift. Another small box. He tore the lid off and pulled out the content; a sleek black pistol. Greer instantly forgot about the machine gun on his back as he cuddled the pistol with care and affection. Everyone laughed; he looked ridiculous.

"Chloe!"

Chloe opened her gift. It was a ring with a large, shimmering diamond-like crystal fixed in the center. "Oh my… It's so beautiful! It's so…" Chloe was at a loss for words as she slipped the ring onto her right fourth finger. She showed it proudly to Scott.

"Rush."

Rush looked down at TJ. TJ passed a box to Eli, who reached back and handed it off to Rush. Rush opened it and pulled out a box of coffee packets. Rush smiled. Eli was ecstatic; Rush actually liked it. Eli had stolen some coffee packets in his short time on Icarus Base. Eli loved when Rush smiled. And he loved it even more when he was the one who put it there. Luckily for him, he didn't have much competition. There was one more thing in the box, as Rush soon discovered. He pulled out a scrap of paper. On it was written a long line of symbols. Rush stared in disbelief. "I- I can't believe it! This is it! It's the access code!" Rush grabbed his coffee packets and dashed up the stairs. The crew exchanged confused glances, but returned their gazes to TJ at the front of the room.

"Colonel Young." The Secret Santa continued as Eli grabbed KELI and ran up the stairs after Rush.

Eli found Rush exactly where he thought he would, in the control room. Rush was frantically typing the code into one of Destiny's programs. His fingers slid across the keypad hastily. Eli stood behind and peered over Rush's shoulder. When Rush had entered the entire code, Destiny made a beeping sound and the interior map of the ship flashed green. Rush didn't move. "Yes! Finally!" he shouted. Eli grinned. Rush turned around and noticed Eli standing there. "Oh, Eli. Thank you so much! I've been dying to access more of the ship! How did you do it?"

Eli blushed. "Hey, I never said it was me."

Rush gave him a look. "Eli, who else could've figured it out?"

Eli tried to think of someone with that knowledge, but couldn't.

Rush leaned over so that he was only an inch or two away from Eli face and whispered, "Thank you." Eli blushed harder and Rush ran off the corridor, more than likely going to explore the previously unavailable parts of the ship.

Eli stood alone in the control room, at least, until Greer walked by. Greer saw Eli grinning to himself, his face a pretty red. "Jeez, Eli. What the hell happened to you? Did Rush kiss ya?" Greer laughed, remembering the time he caught Rush and Eli under the mistletoe. Eli only turned a deeper red and took off after Rush.

Rush slid his hands down the walls as he walked down the passageway. He had enthusiastically surveyed the new rooms inside of Destiny. He rounded the corner and nearly ran into Eli. Eli skidded to a stop in front of Rush. "Oh. So, what's back here?" he asked.

Rush looked around and answered, "Well, there's more rooms that could be used for storage and I found a space that look somewhat like a kitchen of some sort. Becker could use that. I haven't finished looking around, but I also found a smaller control center. It's used for more locally centered activity."

"Ah." Eli nodded. "Oh, um, thank you Rush."

"What for?"

Eli gave him the look. "For KELI."

"I never said it was me", Rush mocked.

Eli grinned. "Oh yeah? And who else would've been able to customize a Kino like that?"

Rush smiled, much to Eli's great pleasure. "You're welcome." Rush kissed Eli on the forehead and walked out in the opposite direction.

Eli blushed. "Merry Christmas!" he shouted after Rush.

"Merry Christmas, Eli."


End file.
